Request a Call Back

Travel Statistics for Tour Operators

A compilation of statistics for the Tours & Activities Sector

Online Booking Behavior

Almost 40% of all tour and activity bookings are being made online (Rezdy data)

Items booked on the internet before a trip: organised tours (5.1%) and entertainment activities/events (39.7%) were booked online, with the latter having doubled since the previous year (Tourism Australia)

59% of Asian leisure travelers want to book travel products “whenever they can” and “wherever they can” (Tnooz)

60% of leisure and 41% of business travelers are making their own travel arrangements, generally via Internet (Amadeus)

More than 148.3 million people use the Internet to make reservations for their accommodations, tours and activities. That’s more than 57% of all travel reservations each year! (Statistic Brain)

Internet travel booking revenue has grown by more than 73% over the past 5 years (Statistic Brain)

97% of people now prefer to find business online (Forbes)

20% of Google searches being for local information (HubSpot)

96.8 million adult Internet users expected to use online coupons in 2013, figures begin to indicate the trend of ‘coupon hunters’ (eMarketer)

Over 50% of today’s travelers will rush to the keyboard, rather than the phone to make their travel bookings (Hotel Executive)

65% of tourist book hotels reservations for the same day on a mobile device (Statistic Brain, 2015)

Surveys find more than half of the traveler’s book travel products through the mobile sites and apps of travel agents. (Whatech, 2014)

Travelers are likely to spend more on sightseeing than on shopping, souvenirs and nightlife combined. The 5 most common things travelers are willing to spend more on as a treat: Sightseeing (53%), special dining experiences (41%), accommodation (41%), activities (35%) and shopping (24%) (Trip Barometer, 2015)

8% of travelers book their trip on a mobile device (Trip Barometer, 2015)

49% of Canadian tourists orientate themselves on on General travel sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz (Desination Canada, 2014)

Tour Operator Websites

20% of tourism providers in Australia have no website at all (Amadeus)

Only 54% of respondents allow people to check both availability and price of their products and services (Tourism Research Australia)

Only 46% of tour operators with websites offer instant confirmation of booking (Tourism Research Australia)

Of those who reported having a website, it was estimated that 48% of website traffic referrals came from search engines (Tourism Research Australia)

The majority of Australian Tours (93%), Attractions (89%), and Hire & Transport (86%) companies have their own website (Tourism Research Australia)

Nearly 32% of leisure travelers will request more information through your website before booking a tour (Google)

Only 50% of tourism providers in Australia currently have booking facilities on their websites (Amadeus)

Tour Operators say their own website is double as effective to get bookings than Review websites. (Rezdy data)

Mobile

Of all direct online bookings, 30% are made on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones), and it’s increasing at a rate of 1% per quarter (Rezdy data)

Mobile phones are the #1 item to bring on holiday (ETB News)

Millennials touch their smartphones 43x per day (SDL)

38% of leisure travelers and 57% of business travelers use mobile for travel information (Google)

Travel-related mobile queries so far during 2013 are up some 66% year-on-year (Mobile Path to Purchase)

31% of smartphone users claim they research travel on their mobile devices (Mobile Path to Purchase)

14% of smartphone users are securing a booking or quotes on their mobile devices (Mobile Path to Purchase)

49% of those using mobiles to get prices for travel products do so on aggregators (Mobile Path to Purchase)

Those who book from mobile devices have 5.1 research sessions & visit 3.3 websites (Mobile Path to Purchase)

Tablets for travel arrangements are increasing – 21% for business & 9% for leisure travelers (Amadeus)

20% of Australian households now have at least 1 tablet (Amadeus)

Up to a week before travel, 5.3% of travelers would make a last-minute booking on a tablet, 43.8% on mobile (Eye for Travel)

94% of TripAdvisor customers are using mobile to research local things to do (Cross Media Live)

23% of leisure and 26% of business travelers use their mobile browser to book vacation activities (Google)

29% of web users accessed their websites through a mobile device (Tourism Research Australia)

67% of smartphone users said they were more likely to purchase from a business’ mobile-friendly site, while 61% said they’d most likely leave a site that wasn’t optimised for mobile (Tourism Research Australia)

Travelers go online during their trips, finding local activities using their mobile devices 33% of the time (Tourism Research Australia)

67% said they were more likely to make a purchase when visiting a business’s mobile-friendly site, versus 61% who said they’d most likely leave a site that wasn’t optimized for mobile (Search Engine Watch)

74% of people said that “If a site works well on a mobile phone I am more likely to return to it in the future” (Search Engine Watch)

In 2011, about 11 percent of people used their mobile device to inquire about a tour on their next vacation. By 2012, that number rose to 19 percent (VFM Leonardo)

36 million Americans using their mobile devices to research vacation options and another 16 million making the reservations on their mobile device (VFM Leonardo)

More than 60% of United States users want a smart phone site to load and work properly within 3 seconds or less (Forbes)

87% of global and 85% of American travelers use mobile devices while traveling (Trip Barometer)

On holiday, 24% of travelers use their smartphones for reading reviews, while 22% use their tablets (Trip Barometer)

On holiday, 27% of travelers are looking for things to do with their smartphone, while 21% use their tablets (Trip Barometer)

66% of US and UK tablet owners use tablets for researching product information before buying (Econsultancy)

63% of US and UK tablet owners are watching videos or browsing photos and checking prices for store information (Econsultancy)

73% of UK and US tablet owners said they use their tablets primarily at home either while watching TV or while in bed at night (Econsultancy)

What matters most to US (29%) and UK (31%) tablet owners while browsing a website on a tablet is a similar experience to desktop, but adapted for a mobile screen (Econsultancy)

Mobile growth will outpace both total and online growth to account for more than 25% of total vs online travel bookings (Business Insider)

Tablets accounted for 7% of all online travel bookings globaly in the 3rd quarter of 2013 (Business Insider)

Mobile apps overtake PC Internet usage in U.S. Mobile devices accounted for 55% of Internet usage in the United States in January 2014. PCs clocked in at 45% (comScore)

Consumers use their smartphone (57%) & computer/tablet (66%) to search for local information when they realize they want or need to make a purchase (Google)

Consumers use their smartphone (53%) & computer/tablet (83%) to search for local information when they actively look or research their purchase (Google)

Consumers use their smartphone (43%) or computer/tablet (64%) to search for local information when they purchase their product/service (Google)

The number of Americans who book travel online and on tablets in 2013 increased by 40% compared to 2012, and those using tablets were 20% more likely to make a booking than those using smartphones.(Phocuswright)

US sales of travel bookings via mobile devices will go from $6.15B in 2012 to $39.5B in 2015. (Phocuswright)

Global smartphone users are expected to touch 1.75bn in 2014 (Eye for travel)

Global mobile phone users to reach 4.55bn in 2014 (Eye for travel)

Between 2013 and 2017, mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1% to 69.4% of the global population (Eye for travel)

US consumers will spend more time on mobile devices than PCs in 2014: 3 hours per day (Eye for travel)

When using Facebook, 37% access the site via desktop, while 68% access the site via mobile (Eye for travel)

37% of the booking in Australia are done on mobile platforms (Criteo, 2015)

45% of connected travelers use their smartphone to book travel activities pre-trip (Trip Barometer, 2015)

Reviews

95% of respondents read reviews before to booking (Tnooz)

Leisure travelers read an average of 6-7 reviews before booking;business travelers read an average of 5 (Tnooz)

Leisure travelers spend an average of 30 minutes reading reviews before booking; 10% of travelers spend more than one hour reading reviews (Tnooz)

70% of travelers look at up to 20 reviews in the planning phase (Tnooz)

85% of consumers read up t0 10 reviews before they feel that they can trust a business (Search Engine Land, 2014)

People will use OTAs and travel review sites like TripAdvisor more, and use general search engines like Google and deal focused sites like Groupon less (Phocuswright)

The most important sources that influenced the decisions of global travelers were travel review websites (69%), online travel agencies (57%), and tour operator sites (56%) (Tourism Research Australia)

70% of global consumers say online consumer reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising (Edelman)

TripAdvisor has 260 million unique monthly visitors and 125 million travel reviews and opinions from travellers around the world (TripAdvisor)

There are 80+ user contributions to TripAdvisor every minute (TripAdvisor)

TripAdvisor reviews are largely positive – 48% are 5 stars, 29% are 4 stars, and the average review score is 4.08 (TripAdvisor)

On holiday, 24% of travelers use their smartphones for reading reviews, while 22% use their tablets (Trip Barometer)

There are currently 200+ million reviews written across the internet (TrustYou)

81% of all reviews are positive (TrustYou)

79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations – this is an increase of 10% compared to 2012 (Bright Local Study, 2013)

At the end of February 2014, TripAdvisor has 150 million reviews – this is a 50% increase year-on-year, with around 50 million added during 2013. This works out to 90 reviews submitted every minute! (Tnooz)

TripAdvisor has a monthly visitor inflow of 57 million people, as well as a member base that exceeds 36 million (TripAdvisor)

53% of travellers were adamant they would never book with any business that didn’t attain a TripAdvisor profile (Sparkloft Media)

Social media is now a genuine marketing platform, with 93% of marketers using social media to their advantage (Social Media B2B)

52% of travelers change their plans based on social media activity and responses (Media Bistro)

Social media is one of the most successful ways to market your travel services, with more than 50% of direct bookings coming from social media accounts (Frederic Gonzalo)

Social media can reduce marketing costs by up to 24%, allowing your profit margins to increase significantly (Frederic Gonzalo)In 2011, about 62 percent of industry businesses had a Twitter profile. By 2012, that number had jumped to 75 percent and it continues to climb today (Frederic Gonzalo)

More than 51% of travel brands that had a Facebook presence noted that they had an increase in business that year (Digital Visitor)

71% of travel brands on Facebook found that they had better engagement and conversation with their customers (Digital Visitor)

Millennials

Millennials touch their smartphones 43x per day (SDL)

Young travelers now represent 20% of international tourism (WYSE)

The rise in youth spending “vastly outstripped” that of other international travelers whose spending increased by just 3% over the same period (WYSE)